Netstor NA381TB3 User manual

Fourth edition, Nov. 2020
User Manual
NA381TB3
4U 24 bay ( 3.5" / 2.5" ) Thunderbolt™ 3 Storage and PCIe Expansion

4. Hardware Configuration
5. Building Up Procedures
1. Overview
2. Package Checklist
3. Panel Layout
6. Operation and Verification
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5
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5.1 PCIe Card Installation
6.1 Verification steps for Mac
5.2 Hard Drive Installation
5.3 Connecting to Host Computer
5.3.1 Thunderbolt 3 Mac host
5.3.2 Mac mini Installation
6.2 Verification steps for Windows
16
6.3 Thunderbolt 3 Card LEDs Status
18
6.4 PCIe expension slot board LEDs Status

1. Overview
Based on the latest Thunderbolt 3 technology and PCIe architecture, the creative,
innovative design of NA381TB3 features RAID level protection and high-performance with
PCIe Gen3 expansion ability to Thunderbolt Mac through the blazing-fast Thunderbolt
interface. Moreover, the Thunderbolt 3 NA381TB3 enclosure accommodates SAS/SATA
6G/3Gbps hard drives and can be installed with professional PCIe cards for application.
2. Package Checklist
Before installing the unit, verify the package contains the following items.
D
Power cord x 2
E
Thunderbolt 3 cable (2 meters) x 1
C
HDD Tray x 24 (installed in chassis)
B
Key for HDD tray x 2
G
HDD mounting screw
F
Internal data cable × 6
Enclosure x 1
A
3
Notify your sales representative if any of the above items is missing or damaged.
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3. Panel Layout
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3. PSU power button
。“I” for enable, “0” for disable
4. Power cord receptacles
5. Thunderbolt 3 Connectors
。Connecting Thunderbolt 3 cables to host
and downstream device
6. Mute Button
。Reset for buzzer beeping
7. Fan Status LED
。Normal – Green
。Failure – Red (too slow RPM or stop)
8. Temperature LED
。Normal – Green
。Over 50°C – Red
9. Cooling fans
10. Swappable integrated plate drawer for
Mac mini/Mac mini Server
1. HDD Power LED
。White - Power On Indicator
2. HDD Status LED
。Flash Blue - HDD Accessing Indicator,
Red - HDD Failure Indicator
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1
3
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6
7 8
9
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4. Hardware Configuration
5. Building Up Procedures
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Slot 1 : Thunderbolt 3 target card (already fixed in the chassis)
Slot 2 : PCIe x8 slot (open-type; supports PCIe card x16/x8/x4/x1)
RAID card is recommended to be installed in this slot as it’s
closest to backplane’s connectors.
Slot 3 : PCIe x8 slot (closed-type; supports PCIe card x8/x4/x1)
Slot 4 : PCIe x8 slot (open-type; supports PCIe card x16/x8/x4/x1)
5.1 PCIe Card Installation
slot 4
slot 3
slot 2
slot 1
1. Place NA381TB3 chassis on a level surface of a stable table.
2. Open the chassis by removing the top cover.
※ PCIe expension slot board LEDs Status

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3. Three PCIe slots on rear of NA381TB3 are covered by removable
L-shape metal brackets. Unscrew the screw of the removable L-shape
metal bracket to let the PCIe slots be ready for PCIe cards installation.
4. Install one SAS/SATA RAID card and other PCIe cards into proper
PCIe slots of NA381TB3, and then tighten them with screws on
the brackets of the PCIe cards.
5. Connect the cable between the topmost mini-SAS connector on backplane
and the mini-SAS connector Channel 1~4 on RAID card, and then connect
the rest cables subsequently to the bottommost one on backplane and
Channel 21~24 on RAID card.
RAID HBA
mini-SAS cable
Enclosure
RAID HBA
Slot 2
※Note: when inserting the mini-SAS cable to the SFF-8087
port on drive backplane, the metal hook on the SFF-8087
connector on data cable must be facing upward.
※

5.2 Hard Drive Installation
5.3 Connecting to Host Computer
5.3.1 Thunderbolt 3 Mac host
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6. Restore the top cover of NA381TB3.
1. Take out the drive trays.
2. Place the HDDs/SSDs in the trays and fix them with drive mounting
screws. If 3.5-inch HDD, use the screws in the packet labeled with 3.5”;
if 2.5-inch HDD/SSD, use the screws in the packet labeled with 2.5”.
3. Insert the drive trays with HDDs/SSDs back to NA381TB3.
1. Connect NA381TB3 to Thunderbolt 3 Mac directly by Thunderbolt 3 cable.
2. Immobilize the chassis on a server rack or proper place.
3. Connect NA381TB3 with power source.
Step 1. Step 2.
Step 1. Step 2.

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5.3.2 Mac mini Installation
1. Loosen the two thumbscrews on swappable integrated plate drawer,
and pull it out. Use a tool to bend the metal board on plate drawer to
separate the metal board from drawer.
2. Unscrew the four screws on L-type bracket on plate drawer, place the
Mac mini Server into drawer, and restore the L-type bracket to fasten
Mac mini Server with drawer.
4. Immobilize the chassis on a server rack or proper place.
5. Connect NA381TB3 with power source.
3. Connect NA381TB3 and Mac mini Server with Thunderbolt 3 cable via
Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter.

6.1 Verification steps for Mac
6. Operation and Verification
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1. When NA381TB3 is connected to the power source, turn on the power switch
of storage’s PSU. (turn the switch to “I” position to enable the power supply unit)
2. The NA381TB3 is designed to be powered on/off simultaneously with Thunderbolt
Mac when storage is connected to Mac by Thunderbolt cable. Therefore, power on
Mac first, and then NA381TB3 will be powered on automatically. (NA381TB3 also
supports hot-plug and hot-unplug for powering on and off)
turn the switch to
position “ I ”

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3. Verify Netstor Thunderbolt 3 target card is recognized by Mac. Click the Apple icon
on top left of the screen, select About This Mac, and click System Report, and then
System Information pane will pop up. Select Thunderbolt at the left side of the pane;
if NA381TB3 can be selected to see its information, the Netstor Thunderbolt 3 target
card is recognized correctly by Mac.

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4. Verify the PCIe cards installed in NA381TB3. After the verification of Netstor
Thunderbolt 3 target card, click PCI at the left side of the pane, and all the PCIe
cards installed in NA381TB3 will be shown in the information area within the pane.
(For RAID card, since starting up, it will take more time for its info to be shown)
5. Verify the drivers of RAID card and PCIe cards are installed on macOS. When seeing
all the PCIe cards are listed at the last step, there will be a section Driver Installed
indicating the status of PCIe cards’ drivers. If it shows “No” for the status, find and
install the Thunderbolt-aware driver for the PCIe card, and then the status will
become “Yes” to mean the driver of the PCIe card is installed properly.

6.2 Verification steps for Windows
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6. After verifying RAID card’s driver is installed, follow the operation procedure
instructed by RAID card’s manufacturer to set up the RAID volume.
7. While NA381TB3 is connected to Mac by Thunderbolt cable, when shutting
down Mac, the NA381TB3 will be shut down simultaneously as well.
1. Verify NA381TB3 is recognized by host. Right-click Computer, and select Manage. When
window of Computer Management pops up, select Device Manager at the left, and click
View on top, and then select Devices by connection.

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3. Depending on RAID card’s requirement (take Areca’s for instance), firstly install
NA381TB3 RAID card’s Windows Thunderbolt-aware driver and the Windows
GUI program.
2. Click ACPI x64-based PC, select Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System, and click PCI bus/PCI
Express Root Complex. Then items Intel 7 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port X
will be shown. Find one of the items that shows PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge, open
the PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge to the innermost tier, and the RAID card within
NA381TB3 will be shown, meaning the storage is recognized by host.

4. After installing the driver and the GUI program, launch the GUI program
by selecting ArcHttpSrvGUI in All Programs in Windows Start to execute
the application.
5. After executing ArcHttpSrvGUI application, the web GUI will pop up.
Select SAS RAID Controllers, and then select ARC-188X Web Management
to enter the GUI interface.
6. Key in admin for name and 0000 for password to enter.
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7. After logging in, for quick setup of RAID volume, select Quick Function
at the left side of GUI, and then select Quick Create.
8. After creating RAID volume, right-click Computer, and select Manage.
When window of Computer Management pops up, select Disk
Management at the left, and then a window will pop up. Select GPT
(GUID Partition Table), and click OK.
9. After selecting GPT (GUID Partition Table), the RAID volume will
appear in the center bottom part of the window. Right-click the
portion of the RAID volume, and select New Simple Volume to
format the RAID volume.
10. After formatting, the RAID volume will be shown in Computer, and will be
ready for use.UI program.
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Note: To eject the RAID volume on Windows, click the Safely Remove Hardware icon on
the bottom right of the screen, and select Eject Areca ARC-188X SCSI Disk Device.

6.3 Thunderbolt 3 Card LEDs Status
11. While NA381TB3 storage is connected to host by Thunderbolt cable, when
shutting down host, NA381TB3 will be shut down simultaneously as well.
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Note: the NA381TB3 chassis supports SGPIO. When any HDD fails, the red LED indicator
on the tray will light. The SGPIO function will be effective when the SAS/SATA RAID
card supports SGPIO function. (for example, Areca’s RAID card)
On the Thunderbolt 3 card within the NA381TB3 storage, there are totally
five LEDs. From top to bottom, they are: LED 2 (for 3V3), LED 3 (for 5V0_ATX),
LED 4 (for 3V3_LC), LED 5 (for 0V9_SVR), and LED 6 (for 0V9_USB). The following
information describes what the LEDs lighting status will be before NA381TB3
is powered on and after the Netstor unit is powered on.
Power-off:
Before NA381TB3 is powered on, only LED 2 will show green light, and the
rest LED 3 through LED 6 will not show light.
green light
not show light

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Power-on:
After NA381TB3 is powered on, LED 2 through LED 5 will show green light. At
this time, if a USB device or a monitor is daisy chained to the second Thunderbolt 3
port on the Netstor Thunderbolt 3 card, then LED 6 will show green light. On the
other hand, provided the second Thunderbolt 3 port is not connected with any
device/monitor, LED 6 will not show light.
green light
(green light)
connected / not connected with any device
(not show light)

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6.4 PCIe expension slot board LEDs Status
Pb
SLOT4(PCIex8)
SLOT3(PCIex8)
SLOT2(PCIex8)
SLOT1(Upstream PCIex16)
NP951AG3 Rev.A0
1-2
2-3
Compatibility Enable
Standard Mode
OFF
ON
FAN SPEED LOW
FAN SPEED HIGH
OFF
SW1-2
Power on/off by Manual
SW1-1
ON Power on/off by Host
+
++
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
Slot 1: Target card
。(already fixed in the chassis)
Slot 2: PCIe ×8 slot
。(open-type; supports PCIe card ×16/×8/×4/×1)
。RAID card is recommended to be installed in this slot
as it’s closest to backplane’s connectors.
Slot 3: PCIe ×8 slot
。(closed-type; supports PCIe card ×8/×4/×1)
LED5 for SLOT1
As LED5 illuminates solid blue light, it indicates Thunderbolt target
card in SLOT#1 is in Gen3 mode. As LED5 blinking blue light,
Thunderbolt target card in SLOT#1 is in Gen2 mode.
LED6 for SLOT2
As LED6 illuminates solid blue light, it indicates the PCIe card in SLOT#2
is in Gen3 mode. As LED6 blinking blue light, PCIe card in SLOT#2 is in
Gen2 mode.
LED7 for SLOT3
As LED7 illuminates solid blue light, it indicates the PCIe card in SLOT#3
is in Gen3 mode. As LED7 blinking blue light, PCIe card in SLOT#3 is in
Gen2 mode.
LED8 for SLOT4
As LED8 illuminates solid blue light, it indicates the PCIe card in SLOT#4
is in Gen3 mode. As LED8 blinking blue light, PCIe card in SLOT#4 is in
Gen2 mode.
Slot 4: PCIe ×8 slot
。(open-type; supports PCIe card ×16/×8/×4/×1)
SLOT4(PCIex8)
SLOT3(PCIex8)
SLOT2(PCIex8)
SLOT1(Upstream PCIex16)
NP951AG3 Rev.A0
1-2
2-3
Compatibility Enable
Standard Mode
OFF
ON
FAN SPEED LOW
FAN SPEED HIGH
OFF
SW1-2
Power on/off by Manual
SW1-1
ON Power on/off by Host
+
++
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
LED 5
LED 6
LED 7
LED 8

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If you have any questions, please contact your regional distributor,
or Netstor Technology, Taiwan.
Netstor Technology Co. Ltd.
www.netstor.com.tw
6F, No. 1, Alley 16, Lane 235, Baoqiao Rd., Xindian District,
New Taipei City 231-45, Taiwan, R.O.C.
[e-mail]
[phone]